The Good News is that Jesus came to show us the way to love and peace not suffering and crucifixion

Rev. Don Reidell gave an interesting sermon today at Pullman Memorial Universalist Church about Palm Sunday which begins Passion week in the Christian tradition. Rev. Reidell said, "I don't think that Christianity is anything that Jesus would want to have anything to do with if He knew about it today."

Rev. Reidell said that as a kid he liked Palm Sunday better than Easter because it seemed exotic with the palm fronds and because "Palm Sunday brings excitement and expectation...that this simple rabbi, riding on a donkey, might be the one." "The one who might lift the hand of wickedness and bring in the rule of justice."

And yet it seems people, centuries later, became enamored with a myth that Jesus' death was a blood atonement for the sin of Adam and Eve rather than a manifestation of the belief in love and peace as the thing of value in a person's soul rather than violence, coercion, and hatred.

Here is a video of Peace On Earth by U2 sung as Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem only to be killed as He protests the wickedness, hypocricy, and materialism of His day. It doesn't seem that much has changed. I like Gandhi's line that he would convert to Christianity if he ever found a church that actually followed the teachings of Jesus. The one I have found that comes closest to the values of Jesus is Unitarian Universalism. Jesus would have been a great UU.